Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan to star in Sam Mendes’ Beatles films

Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan have been confirmed as part of the all-star line-up who will play members of the Beatles in four major new films about the band.

Normal People and Gladiator II actor Mescal will portray Sir Paul McCartney, while Saltburn star Keoghan will step into Ringo Starr’s shoes.

The acting supergroup will also feature Harris Dickinson, who was most recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, as John Lennon.

And Joseph Quinn will go from Marvel’s Fantastic Four to the Fab Four, playing George Harrison in the big-screen quadrilogy, which will be directed by Sir Sam Mendes.

The Oscar-winning director was joined by the four actors for the announcement at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas on Monday.

Each film will focus on a different member of the legendary group.

“Each one is told from the particular perspective of just one of the guys,” Sir Sam told the event. “They intersect in different ways – sometimes overlapping, sometimes not.

“They’re four very different human beings. Perhaps this is a chance to understand them a little more deeply. But together, all four films will tell the story of the greatest band in history.”

The films will be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.

The director explained: “I just felt the story of the band was too huge to fit into a single movie, and that turning it into a TV mini-series just somehow didn’t feel right.”

Paul Mescal, 29, shot to fame in the BBC’s Normal People in 2020, before starring in acclaimed films Aftersun and All of Us Strangers, and playing the lead in the Gladiator sequel. As well as portraying Sir Paul McCartney, the Irish star is about to be seen as another British creative genius, William Shakespeare, in the film adaptation of award-winning novel Hamnet.